Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1887-03-18

bridge on the south end ofsthe structure,
and every man held an axe. Mr.. Lynch
said: "This morning when we had just
begun our work | saw the train coming
and stopped to look at it. saw it 60 on
the bridge and noticed that the train acted
across but the whole train was shaking
and swaying most violently. Then, just as
the fourth car was half on the bridge and
half on the embankment the bridge went
down. The fifth car plunged down with
it and in its fall dragged back and into the
pit below the fourth car which was al
hind the fifth car came plunging and
crashing down upon it and the last car of
all, the smoker, rolled over twice as it
went down. My God the bridge is down,
run boys and take your aXesr yelled. 1
started as fast as could and they with
me. 1t was an awful sight, such strug-
heard in all my life. Some of the passen:
gers who first succeeded in get
ting clear Of the wreck seemed daZed
and bewildered, scarcely able to realize
what had happened or where they were.
The others could and did help us, but on
the south side of the wreck there was no
help for nearly ten minutes. The smoker
was the car that we came to first. Our
boys swung their axes with a will. We
knocked in the end of the car, cut away
between the windows and then went in
ourselves and began the work of rescuing.
We saw the uniform of Officer Walter B.
Taylor and took him out. He was uncon-
scious when we reached him and probably
dead, although his lips quivered for a
minute or two. We took out Mr.. Snow, who
was dying, and at least dozen injured
persons. The unhurt passengers, if there
were any Il don't remember seeing man
in this car but who was more or less in
lured) helped us, and we# emptied
and @ fi laying eSA's the Injured e uron noSens them
By this time teams had begun to arrive and
we placed the wounded on them by twos
and threes and they were carried off to the
engine house at Roslindale. All was con-
fusion. The people were fiOcking to the
place. Everybody was screaming and
shouting, some with pain and others giving
orders. We kept at work until 10 O'clock
and stayed until all were taken away"
Owing to the duplication and misspelling
of names it is now believed that the reports
of the number of persons killed have been
considerably over estimated. Up to noon
to-day DR.. Draper had signed twenty-one
death certificates and DR.. Harris three,
making the entire death total up to noon
twenty-fOur.
INVESTIGATING THE CAUSE.
The railroad commissioners this evening
began an investigation into the cause of
the accident. The first witness was w. A..
Alden, one OF the conductors on the ILL
fated train. The witness said he had
never felt any peculiar motion of the
bridge in going over it. had never felt any
jar of the train as it was leaving the
bridge and had never told anybody that he
did not like that bridge.
BosToN, March 16.-A number of vic
tins of the Forest Hill accident were
buried from Rosindale. Dedham and West
Roxbury to-day. There are many who are
seriously if not fatally I'M jured in Rosi IL
dale whose deaths at any moment may be
looked for and the probabilities are that
the dead will number over thirty. Some
of the injured are so badly shaken up and
internally injured that their recovery will
be matter of months.
THE ROTTEN BRIDGE.
New YORK, March 16.-An engineering
corps has carefully investigated the Forest
Hill disaster and declares that the parts
which first broke were two hangers which
carried the last or most easterly pair of
floor beams of the nOrtherly or last built
truss. The trusseS which carried all the
load, so far as can be judged from outside
appearances, are made Of far from good
iron, to begin with, but in addition to that
they are of very poor design and most i'm
perfectly welded. In addition to that they
are both very badly tiawed by old and
deeply rusted breaks at the most strained
section, there being two distinct breaks of
the kind to each specimen. The general
Judgment of the engineers will bear us out
in saying that more shamefully bad speci-
mems of bridge design, metal and work
manship can hardly exist.